Farmers are well positioned to make money from climate change targets set by governments and private companies.

Speaking at an Oxford Farming Conference event, Andrew Voysey from Soil Capital pointed out agriculture was one of the few industries which can remove carbon from the atmosphere.

He said that even with new green technologies, most sectors will always have “residual emissions” which will need to be offset by a carbon sink.

Soil Capital runs a carbon payment scheme for arable farms in France and Belgium where companies that have greenhouse gas emission targets pay farmers to build carbon stocks in their soils.

Room for improvement

“There is plenty of room for improvement on the science, but we also know that there is enough knowledge to get started,” Voysey said.

He said that there was huge scope to roll out carbon payments in other countries, with Soil Capital planning to open a scheme in the UK next year.

The companies alone have a combined revenue of over $11 trillion

“Over 1,000 companies globally, nearly 500 cities and nearly 50 of the biggest investors in the world have made public net zero commitments to be delivered in the 2040s. The companies alone have a combined revenue of over $11 trillion,” Voysey said.